Root Beer Float Brownies / Giveaway #flavorstory

I have a fun recipe for you today that blew my mind and Little Jenny’s too!! But before I get to today’s recipe I wanted to tell you about today’s post. Today I teamed up with McCormick to celebrate their 125th anniversary. Can you believe they have been around for 125 years? Crazy! It all started back in 1889 when Willoughby M. McCormick went door to door selling McCormick & Company’s first products, Root Beer Extract. From there, the product quickly rose in popularity and led to a trending sensation of root beer floats and root beer home brewing in the early 1900’s. They only started with 3 staff members and grew to be the country’s largest producer of extracts. It just goes to show that you can dream and dream big. You just never know when your big break will come, just keep reaching for the stars!
In honor of Mr. Willoughby M. McCormick I made Root Beer Float Brownies. I was totally shocked on how yummy these brownies turned out. They are light, fluffy, rich, almost cake like and taste just like a root beer float. With a little help from Jenny, we decided to make a vanilla coconut frosting to go over the top. The frosting is light enough not to overpower the brownies, but truly gives you the vanilla flavor that you would get in a root beer float.
I remember as a kid, we used to have a corner cupboard and my Mom had a lazy susan in it filled with all of her spices. They all had that famous red cap and the smell oh, how I loved the smell of all of the spices. I used to just open the cupboard and take a whiff. I can smell it to this day. Funny how some memories really stick to you. I used to also like to give the lazy susan a spin and watch the spices fly off, but don’t tell my Mom I did that. lol
The Root Beer Float Brownies are super easy to make and get this low, calorie!! I made traditional chocolate brownies and added McCormick Root Beer Concentrate and baked them up for about 15 minutes. Once they cooled I made coconut whip cream frosting. I did that by taking full fat canned coconut, place it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. I scooped out all of the coconut meat and whipped it until light and fluffy. I added vanilla extract and only 2 tablespoons of sugar. I frosted my brownies and enjoyed every bite of them. Jenny and I ate quite a few of these. They were so good. I refrigerated the brownies and I thought maybe they would get to hard, but the next day they tasted better. I think I liked them cold over fresh from the oven. When they were cold it was truly like you were eating a Root Beer Float! It’s crazy good and guilt-free.

A light, low calorie brownie that tastes like a Root Beer Float and topped with a coconut whip cream.

Ingredients

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

½ tsp. baking powder

⅓ cup flour

3 Tbsp. canola or vegetable oil

2 tbsp. vanilla greek yogurt

½ cup light brown sugar

½ cup egg substitute or 2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. McCormick Root Beer Concentrate

Coconut Whip Cream:

14 oz can coconut cream or full fat coconut milk

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

2 tbsp. sugar

Instructions

The day before: For the Whip Cream: Place the coconut cream or coconut milk in the coldest part of the refrigerator for 24 hours. Do not open or shake the can. Do not touch it!

The next day:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spray an 8 x 8 brownie pan with cooking spray; set aside.

In a small bowl whisk together cocoa powder, baking powder and flour; set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together the oil and sugar. Add the egg substitute and vanilla and Root Beer Concentrate and whisk until blended. Gently mix in the flour mixture and transfer batter to the pan.

Bake 13 to 15 minutes,be sure not to over bake. A toothpick inserted into center should not be completely dry. A few moist crumbs on the pick means you will have fudgy root beer flavored brownies.

Let the brownies completely cool and top with whip cream.

To make whip cream:

Carefully spoon out the coconut cream and place in a large bowl; (NOTE: do not use the liquid coconut milk, you just want the solids from the can. You may have about a ¼ cup of liquid coconut milk left over. Discard it or use for another purpose.) Beat on high speed until light and fluffy; about 5 minutes. You may have to scrap down the sides of the bowl a few times. Beat in vanilla extract, and sugar, about 2 more minutes. Taste to see if you need more sugar. Spread ½ of the whip cream on top of brownies, and reserve the rest of the whip cream.

Store leftover whip cream in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If it harden up a bit you can re-whip it. It should last at least a week or more.

Store brownies in the refrigerator.

Notes

Note: You will only use half of the whip cream. Cover and refrigerate. You can use the whip cream for smoothies, coffee, muffins, bread and more.

The calories for recipe include ½ of the whip cream mixture: Whip cream is 31 calories per tablespoon.

Since I was going all crazy with McCormicks Root Beer Extract I also made a delicious smoothie, but I will share that with you another time. But I bet you want to see it. If your interested, I will share this delicious recipe with you later this week!
This year, McCormick is taking part in a global celebration of flavor. For each flavor story you share, McCormick will make a $1 donation to United Way Worldwide to help feed those in need.

They will be featuring some of our favorite stories shared on FlavorofTogether.com. While only select stories will be displayed on the website, every story shared will count toward our total donation to United Way Worldwide. I would love it if you added one of your #FLAVORSTORY.

For the giveaway, all I want you to do is share your story using #FlavorStory on my post (comment section below) and one reader will receive a McCormick Anniversary pack. The pack includes exclusive McCormick Anniversary Edition product (both black pepper and vanilla extract – not available in stores!), a McCormick recipe book, and a branded canvas tote.

I will be picking the winner, so you must comment on my post sharing your story! Don’t forget to include the hastag #FlavorStory.

For an extra bonus entry, share your story on McCormicks website! Just go to FlavorofTogether.com and tell me you did so. (Just copy and paste your story from my post to theirs.)

I don’t have a #FlavorStory from childhood, but I do have one from my daughter’s childhood. The first time I let her help me bake something. I think we made banana bread together. I took pictures and everything. She was 3 years old and tiny. I wanted to have the memory forever. Her tiny little hands in the bowl, stirring. Flour on her little nose. Her bright eyes watching the bread in the window of the oven as the bread rose in the pan slightly. And then her proudly announcing to everyone that she helped make the yumminess everyone was tasting when we all had a slice late in the day. PERFECTION. I will be sharing this on McCormick’s website. 🙂

My #FlavorStory is that as a child I remember the first time I as allowed to help my mom bake cookies. I fondly remember the McCormick’s vanilla extract with the red cap. It is a staple in my cupboard!

Here’s my #FlavorStory: my grandma on my dad’s side made the BEST shoga (pickled ginger) & fishcake. She never wrote recipes for anything she cooked. As kids we just enjoyed. As we got older we realized we should cook with her & get the measurements. Easier said than done. A handful of this, some of that, taste it & add stuff until it tastes “right” was what we had to try to translate. We did the best we could…but could never get it to taste as good as hers.

I remember constantly trying out baking cookies when I was a kid because my mom was a great baker and I wanted to be just like her. Unfortunately, I wasn’t such a great baker, because I tended to experiment a lot. My mom always used Mccormick flavors in her recipes, and though I had never tried one (She instructed me not too) I thought that those MUST be the secret to delicious cookies! So I sneakily opened a bottle of mint flavor to make mint chocolate macaroons and I made sure no one was looking and dumped the whole bottle in the bowl! Needless to say…I had used to much and my brother questioned if I put a tube toothpaste in them. My mom laughed and offered to help me bake next time. The cookies smelled delicious though XD LOL! And now my baking has greatly improved. I learned that just a drop will do! #FlavorStory

I would love to try the anniversary flavors. I probably have “all” flavors. I would like to try their vanilla…it’s been awhile. Growing up I had to measure my gramma’s extract “very” carefully. I’m not sure she ever replenished them…hahaha!

Every Sunday we would all jump in the station wagon for the trip to Grandma & Grandpa Adams’ house for dinner. Grandma was a great cook and her fried chicken was the best I’ve ever tasted. She always served mashed potatoes and green beans, and for dessert there was homemade vanilla ice cream! She passed away when I was young and I still miss her and her cooking. I wish I had her cooking skills mixing this and that and making something fabulous! Thanks Grandma!

What a wonderful story! I know nothing beats Grandmas cooking. I didn’t see my Grandma cook to much, but I’ll never forget when she would make homemade cinnamon rolls and took dental floss to cut the rolls. I thought that wa the most amazing thing ever! Oh and I remember my Grandma’s spaghetti suce, just amazing!!

What a great cause! And boy do these brownies look amazing – I used to love root beer floats growing up. My #flavorstory is baking chocolate chip and M&M cookies with my mom, and being caught eating all of the cookie dough! I remember the vanilla extract always being one of the main ingredients 🙂

sound yummy! Love root beer..though seldom drink it anymore as I have cut way back on sugar…just have it now as a sometimes treat…and only a small amount. Saw you posted the root beer float smoothie recipe…that sound delicious, and will look forward to making it.
Many years ago…when my parents had left my brother in charge of us 3 sisters, my brother attempted to make a batch of root beer candy…the recipe didn’t go a planned, but I still loved how it tasted, and have many time wished I could have it again. Maybe with this extract, I will be able to figure out something.

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Hi, Welcome to my blog. My name is Jennifer and I am a health food blogger. I try to take everyday food and make it healthier without sacrificing the flavor. Find out more about me in the About Section of my blog.

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